Human Rights

Human rights are the rights all people have simply because they are human beings. To advocate human rights is to demand that the dignity of all people be respected. Both government and private

individuals can violate human rights. Human rights apply in people’s homes, schools, and workplaces. In fact they apply everywhere. We have our human rights from the moment we are born until the moment we die.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a statement of basic human rights and standards for government that has been agreed to by almost every country in the world. (The text of the entire UDHR is provided on pages 616–623.) First written and adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 1948 under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, it proclaims that all people have the right to liberty, education, political and religious freedom, and economic well-being. The Declaration also bans torture and says that all people have the right to participate in their government process. Today these rights are generally promoted, recognized, and observed by countries that belong to the UN.

The UDHR is not a binding treaty. However, the UN has established a system of international treaties and other legal mechanisms to enforce human rights. These include the following major treaties:

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the freedoms of speech, religion, and press and the right to participate in government.

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides for the right to adequate education, food, housing, health care, protection of property, and employment in safe

conditions at an adequate salary.

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child spells out basic human rights to which children everywhere are entitled, including the right to education and to be free from exploitation.

Some believe the right to a clean environment should be added to the Covenants, while others call for a right to economic development for poor countries. The United States has signed and ratified the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has signed but not ratified both the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

There are other important human rights treaties covering specific areas of human rights, including genocide and discrimination against women. Even when the United States signs a human rights

agreement, it often restricts its enforcement within the country.

This is done by announcing that the United States is taking reservations, which is a legal way of making a provision less enforceable than it might otherwise be. The government gives a number of

reasons for these reservations, including the fact that the treaty would take away the power of individual states to make law under our system of federalism, as well as the belief that other countries should not impose their views on the states. Those who advocate ratification argue that states could still decide how to implement treaties.